


Damsel in Distress

by Aviss



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humour, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 07:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being shadowed by Kakashi all the time should irritate Iruka more than it actually does. Clearly being with Kakashi has made him weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Damsel in Distress

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Off-kilter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/905997) by [Kiterie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiterie/pseuds/Kiterie). 



** Damsel in Distress **

 

"Iruka-sensei, are you aware that Kakashi-sensei is following us?" Naruto asked, his voice barely a whisper as if he didn't want to call attention to the fact that the very obvious shadow moving on the roofs along the path from Ichiraku's to Iruka's house was one Sharingan Kakashi, the Annoying-Nin.

It was late, but not so late that the street was deserted yet, and the presence of Kakashi following Iruka and Naruto around had not been exactly inconspicuous, as Iruka was positive was Kakashi's intention all along. No shinobi worth their title would have missed his presence on the rooftops.

"He does that," Iruka said calmly, not bothering to look and try to find him. He knew he would be able to spot him in one second flat if he wanted, but he wasn't going to encourage Kakashi's stalkerish behaviour by acknowledging it.

"Are you two fighting again?" Naruto said with a much put upon sigh.

"No. Not really." It wasn't so much a fight as Kakashi being his incredibly irritating self and Iruka wanting to wring his neck every time he saw his stupid, overprotective face.

"You are worse than a married couple. What is it this time?" Naruto asked plaintively and then stopped, forcing Iruka to stop as well and wait for him. On the rooftop, the shadow paused and Iruka bit back a groan. _Subtle_. He looked between Iruka and Kakashi before shaking his head and resuming his walk. "On second thought, I don't want to know."

"Wise decision," Iruka said with a small smile, resuming the walk back home. Naruto followed him in silence the rest of the way, he said good night to Iruka when they reached his apartment block and waved at Kakashi before continuing to his own block.

Kakashi was already inside when he opened the door to his flat, probably having jumped straight from the building opposite the moment Iruka had reached the door of the apartment complex.

"You know you don't live here," Iruka said with an eye roll, dumping his things on top of the coffee table and kicking Kakashi's feet off it. He headed straight for the kitchen, wondering when he had completely lost control of his life. Oh yes, when had let Kakashi in it. He grabbed two beers and opened them before returning to the living room. He passed one to Kakashi and flopped on the couch next to him, drinking deeply from his own. It was a side effect of dealing with Kakashi, sometimes Iruka really needed a drink.

"Of course I do," Kakashi said, pulling down his mask and also taking a sip and groaning in appreciation.

"You really don't. I wanted to give you a key and you said you didn't need one, remember?" Iruka said, letting his annoyance show in his tone. "And that's the reason you have to enter through the window, because you still don't live here."

Kakashi turned to look at him with a smug smile. "I don't need a key because you have _perfectly serviceable windows."_

"Which are not supposed to be used as doors," Iruka stressed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You should set some wards and traps on them in that case," Kakashi added, notching up the smugness and drinking again for emphasis, and Iruka couldn't help himself. He pushed Kakashi off the couch, because the alternative was strangling him, and that would be detrimental to his sex life.

And probably his life in general.

"And you should start dinner. I want soba."

He began planning the wards for the windows the second Kakashi started cooking.

…

"There are five elemental types of chakra," Iruka said, his voice carrying inside the classroom, his back to the blackboard where he was going to illustrate everything. It was one of his favourite lessons, though the kids usually hated the ones that were theory instead of practice. "Can anyone tell me which are?"

One of the kids on the first row, a Kiba, raised his hand and Iruka smiled at him.

"Yes, Inori?"

"Why is Kakashi-san sitting outside the window, sensei?"

Iruka sighed, feeling the beginnings of a migraine pressing behind his eyeballs. Kakashi had been there the entire morning, sitting on the tree right outside his classroom window, one of his books in his hand and looking for all the word as if he didn't have anything better to do with his time. It was too much to expect that none of the students noticed or mentioned him, though for a minute Iruka had believed luck would be on his side.

Clearly, he had been wrong.

"He's reading. Ignore him." He turned and shot a glare at Kakashi, who didn't even bother looking up from his book. "The five types of chakra?"

"Are we in danger, sensei?" Another student asked, and the rest of the class chose that moment to start asking questions.

"Is Kakashi-san here to protect us?"

"Are we going to watch him fight?"

"Is it true that he knows more than a thousand jutsu?"

"Can we see the Sharingan?"

And that was it, he had lost control of the classroom and there was no way he could make them learn the chakra with Kakashi lounging outside.

He turned and stalked to the window. "You are disturbing my class, Kakashi," he said, choosing to ignore the honorifics in his anger. "Don't you have anything else to do?"

"Not really," Kakashi said, an insouciant smile on his masked lips. "Just finishing my book." He stretched his legs and lazily turned a page, the picture of unconcerned boredom. Iruka saw red.

He leaned forward, sticking his head out of the window. "Finish it somewhere else," Iruka whispered through clenched teeth, "or so help me, you're sleeping on the couch until Naruto makes Hokage." He took a step back and closed the window with such force that the glass trembled for a second. He took a few deep breaths before facing his students again, and had to bite back a groan at the excited faces looking at him. He should have known better than to whisper with a _Kiba_ in his class.

"Is Kakashi-san your boyfriend?"

"Are you going to get married, sensei?"

"Will he come back tomorrow?"

He was going to _murder_ Kakashi.

…

"You know, as safe places go in the village, there is nowhere safer than the Hokage Tower," Iruka said not breaking stride or looking at Kakashi, who had jumped down from a roof and was now walking by his side.

"You're right," Kakashi agreed easily, putting his book back in the pocket of his vest now that he wasn't pretending to read.

"Which makes me wonder why then are you following me."

"I'm not following you!" Kakashi shot him an injured look. Iruka didn't believe his act for even a second.

"What are you doing here, then?" Iruka asked arching an eyebrow, trying to convey how full of bullshit he believed Kakashi was.

"Can't a man want to accompany his boyfriend on a stroll around the village?"

Iruka scoffed. "A man? Yes. You? Not so much. You are too lazy to follow me around without a good reason."

"You wound me," Kakashi said with an exaggerated pout. Even with the mask Iruka knew it was there, and he worried about his sanity at finding it endearing instead of irritating.

Iruka stopped in front of the Tower's door, nodding politely at the ANBU guarding it, and then turned to Kakashi and leaned close, their faces almost touching. "Not yet, but I will find out what's making you act more like a stalker than ever, and then..." he whispered.

Kakashi barked a startled laugh, closing the last inch and pressing his masked lips to Iruka's. "I'm counting on that, Sensei!"

…

"This is getting ridiculous, you know."

"I know, sensei. But I can't argue with him, he's the boss," Pakkun said with a huff, his expressive face letting everyone know exactly how happy he was to be following Iruka around."

Almost as happy as Iruka was to have a canine shadow. He was going to kill Kakashi when he came back. "I thought that going on a mission would force Kakashi to ease up on the stalking."

"Clearly, you don't know the boss."

"Clearly."

…

"You would know if something has happened to your boss, wouldn't you?" Iruka asked, looking down at the dog curled by his feet.

Pakkun lifted his head from his paws, shooting a clearly unimpressed look at Iruka. "I would know if he's dead or mortally wounded, if that's what you're asking."

"That's what I'm asking," he confirmed, refusing to acknowledge the way his stomach had clenched at the thought of Kakashi dead. He was supposed to come back from his mission two days ago, and though everyone knew that missions rarely ran smoothly and on time, Iruka had a bad feeling.

Had had a bad feeling since the moment Kakashi started following him around all the time, and him being late now combined with that, made all kinds of worst case scenarios run rampant in his head.

"He's alive and kicking, Sensei."

"Probably lost on the road of life," he muttered, turning his attention back to the homework he was grading.

"Maybe you do know the boss after all."

…

"About time you showed up!" Iruka exclaimed, climbing out of the bed the moment he felt Kakashi's chakra signature against the wards on his window.

It was late and Iruka had been almost asleep when he had felt it, and no matter how tired he was after chasing the damned brats, the ones at school and also the bratty jounin at the mission room, for an entire day, there was no way he could stand still and not go see Kakashi after being late for five days.

Not that Iruka was going to say, but he had missed him, had even missed his annoying stalking.

He entered the living room at the same time Kakashi did, and he was definitely looking the worse for wear. Iruka pressed his lips together.

"Did you come straight from your mission?" he asked, though he didn't need to. He could see it clearly in Kakashi's blood-stained clothes and the signs of exhaustion on his face.

"I missed you," Kakashi began, pulling down his mask and attempting a smile that looked more like a grimace of pain.

"Damn it, Kakashi! You need to go to the hospital to..." He didn't get to finish the sentence, his wards tingling madly against his skin. The traps and exploding tags he had surrounding the house activated at the same time, the noise of the windows exploding inward almost covering the sound of footfalls that didn't belong inside his kitchen. 

He was on his guard in an instant.

Kakashi seemed to rally at the sound of the intrusion, readying two kunai and turning towards the noise. He took a step forward, putting himself between Iruka and the door of the kitchen, swaying a bit.

There were three shinobi, wearing Konoha uniforms but clearly not from the village. Iruka knew every single shinobi in active duty, had the misfortune of having to deal with their bullshit and substandard reports on a daily basis, and those three, in spite of their uniform, were not Konoha.

"The chuunin is just a teacher, kill him.  Take the Copy-nin alive," the one that was probably the boss said.

And that was it, Iruka was having none of it. It was bad enough that someone was attacking him in his house, that someone thought they could just take Kakashi, but being dismissed that way on top of everything else...

Iruka stepped next to Kakashi, grabbing a kunai from his pouch and triggering one of the wards embedded inside his house. The attack was fast, one of the enemies facing Iruka, the other two converging on Kakashi, and as strategy Iruka could see it was solid. Kakashi was already exhausted and injured, and there was no way he could fight them all. And Iruka might be just a teacher, but he wasn't exactly a weakling, and if they thought he was going to roll over and die while they took Kakashi, they were in for a surprise.

He dodged the first attack, rushing to the side and crashing into one of Kakashi's assailants, grabbing his attention and forcing him to defend himself against Iruka's taijutsu. His house wasn't the best place for hand to hand combat, and it was clear in just a minute of fight, that their enemies were skilled, probably close to Kakashi's level. They were bold enough to attempt an attack inside the village, which also marked them as reckless. With the amount of noise they were making someone was bound to come investigate in a couple of minutes. Unfortunately Kakashi didn't look as if he had that much time.

Iruka saw him fighting against the leader, his movements halting and slow, defensive. He wasn't attempting any jutsu, which confirmed what Iruka had suspected about his chakra reserves, and he cursed him inwardly for not going straight to the hospital as he should have.

He didn't have more time to check on Kakashi or help him, though, the other two enemies attacking Iruka at the same time. And it was an unfair fight, two jounin level shinobi against a chuunin, but Iruka was used to being at a disadvantage and being underestimated. And he was home. He just needed to hold on long enough for any of his neighbours to come investigate, and prevent the enemies from taking or harming Kakashi.

He could do that.

He used everything he could find to block the attacks sent his way, parrying and ducking between the two enemies and keeping them as far away from Kakashi as he could, listening for the sounds of the cavalry. It was tight, and he felt when a misstep put him in the path of a kunai and it sliced his forearm. He cursed, loudly, and kicked the man attacking him in the wrist with enough force that he heard the bones breaking. He grabbed the kunai as it fell, and twisted in a swift movement, catching the other enemy by surprise and slashing at his throat. He felt the splash of hot blood on his hand, coating his skin and the kunai, and got ready to throw it at the man attacking Kakashi when several things happened at the same time.

Kakashi suddenly stopped moving, listing to the side and crumpling almost in slow motion, a smoking wound on his side. Iruka screamed, his entire focus narrowed on Kakashi; he didn't see the blow coming his way.

What he did see, just before he passed out, was Genma and Anko and several others appearing in his house.

The cavalry had arrived.

…

"So, you suspected there was someone following me that wasn't you," Iruka began, arms crossed over his chest and his best glare aimed at Kakashi, who nodded from his position in the hospital bed: his face was still way too pale and the circles under his eyes were too dark, but he was alive and relatively intact, though this time it had been close, way too close for Iruka's taste. "And instead of doing what a normal person would have done, which was alert the Hokage and me, you decided to become my shadow in the hopes of catching them."

"When you put it like that..." Kakashi began, voice raspy and clearly exhausted.

"How would you put it, then?" Iruka asked archly, all the fear and worry of the last two days making him testy. 

"I didn't have any evidence, and I couldn't go to the Hokage with just a gut feeling. I wasn't going to raise the alert before I knew what was going on." At least he had the grace to look sheepish at that. "I thought I could protect you, and at the same time make them nervous enough to reveal themselves."

Iruka sighed. "Oh, you made them reveal themselves alright. The only problem was that they weren't after me. They were just waiting for you to be caught in a vulnerable position, and coming back exhausted, with no chakra and still suffering injuries from your mission, to check on your boyfriend before you even went to the hospital or to the Hokage because you were worried someone was after me, was the chance they had been waiting for."

Kakashi looked chagrined at that. "So they were after me all along."

"Yes," he confirmed curtly and then relented at Kakashi's slight wince.  "And if you had mentioned something, instead of taking your cues from that damned books you read and trying to be heroic on your own, we might have been looking into it before they showed up and almost killed you. They were watching me because they figured I was your weak spot, that if you were worried about me you would make a mistake."

It had been Ibiki who had managed to get all the information out of the leader. They had been smart, finding as much about Kakashi and his habits as they could before moving on him, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to attack. It had been the leader who had decided that their best chance was targeting Iruka.

"And I did make a mistake," Kakashi finally admitted, and that was enough for Iruka. He grabbed the chair and pulled it close to the bed, taking Kakashi pale hand between his and marvelling for the thousandth time at how soft and strong they were.

"Yes, but it wasn't a bad as the one they made," Iruka said, squeezing his hand.

"What mistake?"

He lifted Kakashi's hand and slowly took it to his mouth, looking at Kakashi and letting his lips curve in a smirk. "They thought you were the big hero in one of your awful novels. Turns out, you were the damsel in distress."

...

 

 


End file.
